The Academic Sith
by Victor Weiss
Summary: Taren Jace, former Sith Apprentice and now traveling Sith in search of knowledge has ended up on Remnant, a planet dead to the Force, in search of answers to this mystery, he unwittingly becomes involved in events he has no warning against. Rated T for violence, slightly language and Nora. RnR.


**The Academic**

 **Summary**

 _The Sith, the wielders of the Dark Side of the Force, feared as bringers of destruction and the heralds of violent change. Who do endless battle with the order of the Jadi, protectors of peace and tranquility across the galaxy. This is the story of not a JedI, but of a Sith, who holds no value in power, but in knowledge._

 _And now, on Remnant, a planet that is "dead" to the force despite thriving with life. Taren Jace, former apprentice to Darth Plagueis, seeks the knowledge, and in turn becomes tangled in the planetary politics of the world itself, of Remnant._

 _This is not a story of a galactic changing event, nor a great battle that would decide the fate of countless systems… This is the story of the Academic Sith._

 **Prologue**

Taren was a human, as most Sith apprentices under Human Sith Lords tended to be, he was young… well, young-ish, at Thirty-six years of age. Technically older but time in Light-Speed and deep cryogenic sleep did wonders for the body's ability to appear younger than it should. Such was why he appeared only in his upper thirties as opposed to the actual sixty-nine years of life he'd lived.

With dark hair, streaks of silver lining the crown and his head and growing stubble, he only looked older to anyone who saw him. Which was fine by him, they could believe him to be a Tarentatek in human skin for all he cared, afterall their opinion wasn't overly important to his current position. He merely needed to get through the day and then continue his research into the planet's mysteries.

Ah yes. Remnant. It wasn't on any star-chart. The system it belonged to was so far out of the way of any civilized governing bodies that it probably wasn't even listed as "habited" world despite the fact it was teeming with life.

It was filled with people. _Humans_! A world that supposedly has no contact with outside forces had humans on it's surface! Taren had been sure to note this in his logs and while he had a number of theories as how this happened, he couldn't prove any of them without access to records so complete that he'd doubted he'd ever get them because they'd likely never exist in great enough detail to aid him.

But the planet's mysteries didn't end there.

It's greatest mystery was the fact that the Force was dead here. Well, not _dead_ dead. It just… didn't seem to exist in the amount enjoyed by the rest of the galaxy as a whole. That had been what brought Taren to this planet in the first place. He'd spent years, almost a three decades now, traveling to remote systems in search of his greatest pleasure.

Knowledge. Anything and everything. He wanted to know it all and to experience what he could. That was why his old master had allowed him to go when Taren had told him that he didn't wish to crush the JedI, to rule or even to ascend to powers beyond imagining.

He just wanted _knowledge_.

That was why his master had allowed him to go, he'd taken on another Apprentice anyway, a clear violation of the ancient Rule of Two passed forth by Darth Bane, but who was going to report that breach of professionalism? Taren had been dismissed and warned that if he should betray them to the Jedi order than he would beg for death.

That would require going to Coruscant or any other Republic worlds. Worlds that Taren held no interest in as there was nothing new to be learned about them. No. What interested Taren was the distant, unexplored systems.

So he found Remnant. Felt the force, or lack of, around the planet. Nothing should have existed because without the force there was simply no life. And yet when he had been in his starship in orbit, he'd seen grassy fields, oceans of blue and deserts… he'd seen a world that should have radiated with the force.

Instead he'd felt nothing. Not a single ripple in the galaxy spanning energy that powered both Sith and Jedi. This had wetted his thirst for knowledge and so he'd come down to the planet. Found a discrete forest to land in.

Things when bantha poodoo up from there.

When you're connected to the Force, whether you're light or dark, it afforded you an array of powers that were vastly helpful in not being caught off guard. What happened? Taren had been completely caught off guard!

You'd think a bird the size of a Middle-weight, Light-class Transport ship would be easy to spot in the open sky.

You'd be wrong.

Turns out the beast, a Nevermore (Eldest-class!) as he would come to learn, couldn't be sensed through the force. Nor could any other beast known as "The Grimm". Why? He didn't know just yet but it was fascinating! Had he not been the victim of a burning spiralling descent with his ship alarms screeching almost as loudly as the beast currently ripping at the hull outside of said ship he'd have been taking notes.

But the point being here that the giant bird had wrecked his ship.

He'd crashed, survived, barely! And had managed to fend off a small horde of monsters and find civilization.

Then he'd discovered humans! Or rather, Human-animal things. They were initially quite afraid of him, he couldn't blame them, he'd never bothered to change out of his usual Sith traveling attire. With black robe like fabrics, grey and silver armor plated across his shoulders, thighs and chest.

A single quad red eyed mask with a hood. He must have appeared to be some demon.

Of course, after some explanations, with the careful application of force oriented mind trickery, he'd learned quite a bit of his predicament. First and foremost. They hadn't discovered Space-Flight in the slightest! So, his chances of repairing his ship and continuing on his journey? Not happening.

Second. The creatures that had attacked him were known as The Grimm, apparently the very manifestation of negativity and with a thirst to destroy humanity, and by extension it seemed, the Faunus, the race of Humans-with-animal-features that had found him.

Third, and most importantly. Using the force, even something as simple as a mind trick against these people, who had no mental defenses to speak of since it appeared such things didn't simply exist here, had worn him out. That had been alarming… He thought he'd missed something, that maybe their defenses were there… But they hadn't even known he'd invaded their minds and enforced his will upon them.

It would be a week later that Taren discovered the reason for it. This planet, it lacked the Force. The life forms around it didn't possess it. He didn't feel any of them in the Force, in fact, he didn't feel the Force itself. Where he once felt the churning, turbulent throes of the Dark Side, he now felt nothing. He even attempted to tap into the light, to see if that particular side of it had better luck.

It hadn't.

He was now the only Force Sensitive being on the planet that lacked said Force. And it was his own Midichlorians that had allowed him to use the residual Force within his own body, whereas he would once use the Force all around him, it's vast unending power was now cut from him and he had only his natural attunement.

In the following days after this conclusion, he'd come to find that floating a single chair could tucker him out after only fifteen minutes of letting it float aimlessly. Needless to say he was quite vexed.

On the plus side. Without the Dark Side to amplify these dark rages, Taren hadn't destroyed the small village he'd come to take shelter in! Silver lining and all that.

On the bad side, or dark side? (hue hue), he'd come to also suspect that as the only force Sensitive person on a backwater planet full of life he couldn't sense, he'd come to be utterly and almost sadly alone.

He was used to solitude. But then he'd always had the Force there, the churning maelstrom of the Dark Side to keep him company during meditation, now with nothing he felt more alone then he ever did for any extended period in space.

And that was why, after a month of staying in that village and learning what he could of the outside world and it's four kingdoms, Vale, Mistral, Vacuo and Atlas respectively. He'd decided that he would continue his original quest for the knowledge as to why Remnant was as it is. Dead to the Force and utterly teeming with creatures so hostile you'd almost assume they were related to the Tarentatek.

He'd gone to Atlas first, as it was the closest kingdom to the village. There he'd gotten some funding, Lien it was called, via simple Mind trickery and had enough funds to get to Vale after learning what he could at many of the public libraries, he'd even met a nice family who he convinced, again, mind trickery was almost mockingly simple for these people to fall influence to, to allow him to stay with them.

He'd paid them, of course, afterall, a little generosity went a long way in case he needed a place to stay if he returned to Atlas.

Once in Vale, he'd attempted to travel to the Libraries…

And it was during his little shopping one night that he met a very curious little girl.

A little girl in a red hood named Ruby Rose.

And this is where the story really begins…

 **End of Prologue**

 _Now! I like to think that while my knowledge of Star Wars is limited to fan fiction, (I haven't read the wiki in ages!) That I didn't leave out any overly glaring plotholes (CoughsecretapprenticeBSandthefacthisshipdidn'thavenysensorscough)! That said, as you can tell, this story won't be overly serious all the time and contain an air of sarcastic humor, but it will get dark at points because I like dipping my readers into such things at times._

 _The prologue is short, yes, the next chapter will likely be longer. And while it will cover Volumes 1 and 2 of the show, it will diverge at points to add a bit more to the story, (Seriously, you skip weeks in advance between a few episodes? Really, Roosterteeth?) So, yeah._

 _Oh! And since I know you're all probably expecting Taren to take on an Apprentice at some point, I will say he will, but I won't say who! If you have suggestions, arguments or even such things against/ with this, do feel free to leave them in a review or PM me with them._

 _PS. I'm leaning towards Jaune. (He's just so... useless otherwise.)  
_

 _PSS. Dun hate me for it._


End file.
